Green Bean Casserole From Scratch

It’s always important to remember that there’s a world of difference between irreplaceable and Tastes Better. Something can be irreplaceable to you without necessarily being all that great of a thing. Like your raggedy childhood teddy bear or that special grungy T-Shirt that you refuse to let your spouse throw away. If you’re me, you have at least two dozen such T-Shirts.

Green bean casserole, to me, is irreplaceable. Something about the flavors that those strange canned products create when smashed together just reminds me of my childhood.

BUT.

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That doesn’t mean that I can’t make an objectively better version and leave it up to you whether or not you stray from the traditional soup can path this Thanksgiving.

So this is a green bean casserole from scratch. And I must say that even if the traditional variety is irreplaceable to me, this variation is damn good.

Directions

1) Wash your green beans, trim off the ends, and chop them in half.

2) Dunk the green beans in a pot of boiling, salted water for about 90 seconds. They should turn bright green and be slightly tender. Drain the beans and immediately dunk them in a bowl of salted ice water to stop them from cooking.

4) In a large pot over medium-high heat, melt the butter and then add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt.

5) Cook for about 5 minutes until the mushrooms start to break down and release their liquid. Then add garlic, pepper flakes, and herbs. Stir and cook for 30 seconds.

6) Add flour to the pot, stir, and cook for another minute to cook out the flour flavor.

7) Stir in the chicken stock in small batches. Don’t just add it all at once. Stir it constantly as you add the stock so it stays creamy and doesn’t get lumpy. If it’s too thick, add more stock or water. If it’s too thin, just simmer for a few minutes until it thickens.

8) Add green beans and pearl onions and stir to combine.

9) Pour mixture into a buttered casserole dish and top with Parm, breadcrumbs, and slivered almonds.

10) Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until the top is nicely browned.

11) Let cool for a few minutes and serve immediately.

Green Bean Casserole from Scratch

Prepping the ingredients

So even though this dish is from scratch, it’s actually really easy to make. Something that I’m sure the Campbell’s and French’s people don’t want you to know. There’s only one mildly tricky part which we will get to.

First, though, let’s handle the green beans. You need to blanch them which should not scare you away. Basically just wash the beans and chop off the tips. I like to use a pair of kitchen shears so I can clean up 5-6 at a time. Then chop all the beans in half.

Dunk them all in salted boiling water for about 90 seconds. They will turn bright green which is what you want. Then immediately drain them and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking.

You’ll also need to slice up some mushrooms and get some pearl onions. I wasn’t sure if the pearl onions would work out but they were maybe my favorite part of the dish!

I’ve used frozen and fresh without too much difference. Fresh are a bigger pain in the butt though so use frozen if you can find them.

The basics.

Also mince up a few cloves of garlic and some fresh oregano and/or thyme. Again, this is pretty easy stuff.

The Mildly Tricky Part

The next step is making the mushroom gravy base for the dish. Of course, this is the part that you usually get by using a big ass can of cream of mushroom soup.

Like I said, those flavors to me are irreplaceable, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t make something that tastes better.

Start by letting your butter melt in a medium-large pot (depending on how much casserole you’re making). Once the butter is melted, add the mushrooms along with a pinch of salt.

Let this cook for 5 minutes over medium-high heat until the mushrooms start to soften and release their liquid. When that happens, add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and fresh herbs.

A good sear on the shrooms

Cook this for a minute or two and then add your flour to the pan. It will look pretty dry, but just stir it together and you should end up with a mushroom-paste situation. Cook this for about a minute just to cook out some of the flour taste. If it’s really dry, like you can still see flour, then add a bit more butter or a drizzle of olive oil.

You just made a roux.

Or, as I like to call it, a mush-roux-m.

Once you have this roux ready, start slowing adding your chicken stock to the pot, stirring the whole time. Add in in a few batches and stir stir stir.

Two cups should be about right but if it looks too thick, add more obviously. If it looks too thin, that’s not a problem. Just let it simmer for a few minutes and it will thicken up.

Eventually, you’ll end up with this wonderful mushroom gravy that smells amazing.

The gravy.

Ok. That’s the only hard part of the whole deal. And I have full faith that you can do it.

Next, just dump in your onions and green beans and season with salt and pepper. Look how fresh and colorful this is!

Nice colors.

Assembling the casserole

Lightly butter a casserole dish and then pile in your green bean mixture. Top it with some Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, and slivered almonds.

If you’re addicted to the French’s onions, you can also use those, but I wanted to branch out a bit on the toppings.

Good toppings.

Bake this at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. The crust should be nice and crispy and you might notice some of the gravy bubbling up.

It’s pretty much done when the crust is lightly browned though.

If you’re looking for a from scratch version of the classic green bean casserole then give this guy a shot.

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26 comments on “Green Bean Casserole From Scratch”

Very interesting Nick, I don't know this dish at all – if you ask a South African about a green bean casserole they will probably reply: a stew of onions, mutton, potatoes and green beans and of course you have to use garlic and lots of black pepper.

Good post! I tried the same thing 2 Thanksgivings ago… with great success! But I soon realized why people were taking the Campbell shortcut: Because the canned version has strong (enhanced) flavors, and, because you can't very well improve on a classic bread and butter flavor.

Sorry Nick, but to me, it's not a green bean casserole unless you have those fried onions on top! But I guess those could be prepared from scratch too, with thinly chopped onion slices, a little light batter, and oil?

I do that! I make my onions with really thin red onions and beer batter. As soon as they come out I hit them with seasoned salt. They're delicious mixed in to the casserole :) (Oh, and I like to add marsala to my mushroom soup too.)

you don’t even have to make a batter for easy fried onions. you just toss them with a few tablespoons flour and then quick fry in not a lot of oil. works great. from the Jerusalem cookbook for Mejadra – a rice and lentils dish that has fried onions stirred in and as topping too.

Oh I can smell this sitting here as I read your instructions. I will definitely have to try this, but I don't think I'm brave enough to try it for Thanksgiving. You know how people like their favorites for the holiday meal. I can make that campbells version with my eyes closed so that will be on the table next week but I am going to test your recipe out about the second week of December and see how it goes over with the kids. Kids being kids I bet it won't fly with them but my husband will love it. He loves "grown'up" food if you know what I mean. I'll post back how it went over. I'm thinking I need to serve this with some kind of pork chops. I'll start looking for that now. Thanks for sharing!

This green bean casserole looks FANTASTIC!! No one in my family likes the canned version or the french fried onions. Ick. This will be a hit – I know it!! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe. I will be making it this weekend. :)

Oh man, I have always been disgusted with green bean casserole. I know it's nostalgic for a lot of people, but heated sludge from a can never appealed to me. I was kinda bummed when this won the poll. BUT your version actually looks DELICIOUS. And I can make it vegetarian! You've completely converted me, sir. Nicely done.

I LOVE it – the bright greeness of the beans and the combination of flavours. I recently had it at a pot luck and was sure there was some peanut butter lurking in the dish. A definite must make. Thanks

I made this at 8:30 last night with a side of Basmati rice. Nummy!! I only wanted to eat a little cuz it was so late to eat supper but I couldn’t stop eating it! Used fresh green beans my sister-in-law gave me!

I made this to go with Christmas dinner. It was delicious! We added some Velveeta and additional spices to our taste. Next time I make it (and there WILL be many next times, because we’re never going back to canned green bean casserole!), I’ll adjust the red pepper flakes down a bit because it was a tad too spicy for us, and I’ll pour the stock a bit slower because my batch was too watery and needed to be reduced down quite a bit. I liked the almonds for texture, but will omit the breadcrumbs next time and go with the usual French fried onions on top. Thank you for making Christmas dinner a hit!

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